The Pittsburgh Steelers wrapped up their offensive coordinator search Tuesday afternoon with the hiring of former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith. It was a move that angered some and delighted others like Pat McAfee, who insisted on Tuesday’s episode of the Pat McAfee Show that “Pittsburgh is going to love Artie Smith.”
However, the reality is that Smith was fired after wrapping up his third straight 7-10 season as head coach of the Falcons. So to get a better picture of the Steelers’ new offensive coordinator, who better to turn to than a man who covered Smith? D. Orlando Ledbetter, Falcons beat writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, joined The PM Team on 93.7 The Fan on Tuesday to discuss Smith. The discussion led off with Ledbetter’s thoughts on Smith as an offensive mind.
“You guys are getting a guy who can put together the run game,” Ledbetter said. “We didn’t get to see the whole pass attack here, even with Matt Ryan… Innovative play caller, space you out, tries to spread it, and tries to attack. He was able to get a lot of yards here. Should be a good hire there. You know he can pound the ball, and in the AFC North, you’ve gotta pound it at people, and he’s been able to do that at both stops.”
Now the concepts of attacking on offense and pounding the ball may seem diametrically opposed in today’s NFL. However, once you start digging into the numbers, it’s apparent that Smith’s offense in Atlanta, much like during his time as offensive coordinator of the Tennesee Titans, wanted to do both.
Ledbetter specifically keyed in on spreading the ball out and attacking, but what does that look like? In 2023, four offensive players for the Falcons had at least 70 targets in the passing game: WR Drake London led the team with 110 targets, TE Kyle Pitts had 90, RB Bijan Robinson had 86, and TE Jonnu Smith had 70 targets. That’s an interesting distribution of targets, but when you factor in the emphasis on the run game, having two tight ends be targeted at least 70 times can be seen as a way of attacking from a position of strength.
Another way you can see how the Falcons wanted to attack was by how far the quarterbacks were throwing the ball down the field. With a heavy emphasis on the run game, that can cause defenses to bring an extra defender in the box. That can open up options downfield, and Smith tried to exploit that. A great statistic to track that downfield attack is “Intended Air Yards Per Pass Attempt,” or IAY/PA. It’s simply how far the ball travels downfield in the air on passing attempts.
Both Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke, the two quarterbacks who saw more than some fleeting playing time in 2023, averaged over eight air yards per passing attempt. Ridder averaged 8.2 and Heinicke averaged 8.4. For comparison, Steelers QB Kenny Pickett averaged 7.0 air yards per passing attempt in 2023.
So does that guarantee that Smith is going to come in and completely turn things around in Pittsburgh? No. Does it mean that, despite being characterized as someone who only cares about running the ball, Smith can’t orchestrate a passing attack? I don’t think so, and apparently neither does Ledbetter, who watched the Falcons closely during Smith’s tenure.
